


Leverage, Season 1, Episodes 12-13, The First David Job and The Second David Job

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Leverage
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e12 The First David Job, Episode: s01e13 The Second David Job, Meta, Nonfiction, Season Finale, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24450895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 6





	Leverage, Season 1, Episodes 12-13, The First David Job and The Second David Job

Open to Nate drunkenly getting out a cab, and in all sincerity: Good on him for taking the cab. He pays the driver, ignores the driver’s concern, and stumbles to a sign announcing there’s a party for his old boss who refused to pay for Sam’s treatment.

He headbutts a security guard who tries to keep him out, and grabbing the man’s guy, he aims at it Evil Former Boss. EFB, however, is surprisingly calm, and he invites Nate in for shrimp.

“I do love shrimp.” Following, Nate immediately pours himself some more alcohol as EFB talks. He declares he’s here to sell EFB something, and he whispers something. Whatever it is, EFB is sceptical but slightly hooked.

He calls for “Portia”, and Sophie comes over.

Two weeks earlier in Leverage headquarters, Sophie is handing out notecards to her future daughter and sons-in-law whilst Nate is drunkenly stumbling around looking for the four of them. When he comes in, they make it clear it’s now time he got revenge on EFB with their help.

Back in the present, EFB is giving deets on Sophie’s persona as a representative of the Vatican. Glasses wearing Eliot is an art verification guy.

In the past, Sophie gives an art history lesson, and I’m not an art person at all. Basically, there are important miniature statutes of Michaelangelo's David.

Back in the past, EFB takes Nate and Sophie into his vault, and there’s two paintings I do recognise: Portrait of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger and Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.

Hans Holbein the Younger is awesome, though, I wish some other painting but More had been shown. Vermeer is fine, but I only know about this painting of his, because, I watched some of the movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth involving it.

Out in the van, Parker is happily dismissive of how easy it would be to break into the vault, and she cutely shows a fake David where his new home will soon be.

Past. Team Leverage discuss framing EFB for fraud.

Present. Sophie and Nate put pressure on EFB, and he compares the second David to the holy grail. Sophie gets him to agree to use Eliot for the verification.

Going outside, Nate talks to Eliot via earbud, and right in front of the woman he’s talking to, Eliot answers. More than this, he says, “I’m getting off here,” and I’m pretty sure she’d be able to hear that, at least. Nate simply tells him to bring the woman he’s talking with along.

EFB comes up to ask why Nate came to him. Nate knew he’d play the best price, is the answer.

“You hate me,” EFB points out.

Nate agrees. However, he’s drunk, broke, and living out of his car, and uh-oh. That woman Eliot was talking to? It’s Nate’s ex-wife, Maggie.

The connection is revealed to Eliot and possibly Sophie, and Eliot immediately detangles his arm from Maggie’s.

In the van, Hardison hurriedly says, “Guys, stay in character.”

Nate and Eliot shake hands, and apparently, Nate is squeezing hard.

Sophie drags Eliot and EFB away, and Hardison and Parker decide to listen to both sets of conversations.

Maggie is sympathetic to Nate’s current circumstances, and she wants to help.

Sophie comments Maggie is pretty, and EFB explains how they used to be a power couple in the insurance business. Eliot gives a tentative stamp of approval for the statute being authentic.

Coming over, Maggie wants to verify the art her ex-husband is trying to sell, and EFB trusts her to do this.

Nate goes to get some drinks, Sophie goes with her, and they talk to Hardison and Parker via earbuds. Hardison asks if there’s any chance Maggie isn’t good at her job, and she’s the best, is the answer. Parker insists they can’t let her anywhere near this, then.

So, Nate calls Parker to break in, and planning to go with her, when she starts to change into the van, Hardison averts his gaze and the gaze of the David. Aw, and heh.

Everyone helps Parker break in, and part of this includes her and Hardison making out. He’s thinking they should maybe talk, but she makes it clear they need to continue kissing.

Guards come, and concluding the horny couple bumped the alarmed door open, they leave, but they don’t make Parker and Hardison leave, too.

Good for the con, but still: Bad, guards. What if the horny couple decided to slip into the room to do more than kissing?

Which the not yet couple do.

Hardison keeps trying to talk about the kiss, and Parker either doesn’t realise or is determined to avoid said conversation.

Outside, Eliot asks Sophie, “Which one of you did she kiss?”

Inside, Parker is a badass, and Hardison is even more in love than ever.

Meanwhile, Nate is trying to have a heart-to-heart with Maggie, but him having to talk to the others via earbud isn’t helping.

Sophie’s jealous.

They steal the David from the vault, and Nate tries to leave, but Maggie offers him a place to stay if he needs it. Then, she tries to talk to Eliot’s persona.

“I'm sorry your wife gave me her phone number,” Eliot says in headquarters the next day.

Ex-wife. I do appreciate the fact Maggie is never shamed for trying to move on after Nate. Eliot is a little uneasy about his relationship with Nate suffering over this, but it’s more he’s labelled Maggie as someone he personally views as never going to happen rather than believing nothing should ever happen between her and anyone else.

Sophie suggests they frame EFB for both Davids being a fraud, and Nate says he’d like to have a private word with her.

The two yell at one another. He believes she’s conning Team Leverage, and when she says something about Maggie still working for EFB, it’s revealed Maggie doesn’t know about EFB refusing the treatment.

Full disclosure: I’ve never lost a child. If I had a child I was co-parenting with someone, I can’t know how I’d handle things with the other parent if our child was dying.

So, Nate found a treatment that might have worked on Sam. For some reason, he didn’t tell Maggie he’d found it. He went to his boss to get it paid for, and the boss refused. And he still didn’t tell his wife, the mother of their dying child, he’d found a possible way to save their son but couldn’t get the money from their boss? He didn’t think she and him might not be able to find some alternate way to pay for it?

Sophie tries to comfort Nate, but he’s too disgusted by himself to accept it. She asks if he wants to walk away, but thinking of all the other kids who might have gone the way of Sam due to EFB, he can’t.

The next day, Team Leverage gets to work, and I like Hardison’s agal or keffiyeh. EFB asks why Hardion’s persona is selling, and the answer is: Debts he incurred playing cards in England.

Maggie declares it real, and showing she’s observant when she wonders where receptionist Parker went, she talks about how nice it was working with Nate again.

Outside, Sophie tells EFB, since he’s agreed to donate the David after his death, the Vatican is loaning him stuff for his collection.

Coming out, Nate punches EFB, and again, EFB is calm.

There’s product placement for a car Hardison is driving, and it’s shown someone is taking pictures of Sophie and Nate. Hi, Quinn.

Noticing this, Eliot tries to stop him, and he just straight up sends Eliot to the ground. Eliot tries to alert the others, but his earbud was knocked out in the process.

People follow Hardison into Leverage headquarters.

Parker jumps onto the moving van EFB sent the David in.

At headquarters, it’s shown the security is good. Hence, Sterling was either a hallucination or let in by Sophie in The Two-Horse Job.

Hardison is taken down, Eliot is still being beat up, and when Parker gets into the van, Sterling is just chilling inside.

Eliot finally knocks Quinn out, but when he tries to warn Team Leverage they’ve been blown, Sterling greets Nate via earbud. He wants to meet Nate in the place they used to drink after work, and he promises to come alone.

Nate and Sophie go to the roof of his old office building, and the fact Nate and Sterling used to hang out up there to drink after work is actually sweet and doesn’t help my fanfiction-tending brain from believing Sterling might be in love with Nate.

Sterling wants the second David that he believes Sophie is in possession of. She confirms this. Sterling says Nate will go to Leverage headquarters, and Sophie will bring it to Sterling in exchange for Parker.

Okay, I might write a whole meta on this one day, but: Sterling and Sophie have been working together this whole time. It’s a theory I’ve had since the The Two-Horse Job.

Sterling leaves, and Sophie walks away. I wonder if Nate was expecting to never see her again. For all he loves her, he might not know how much she loves him and the rest of the team yet.

The next scene, though, has them in Sophie’s storage place. He’s angry the whole con against EFB was to get both Davids. She gets angry back, but when she calms down some, she insists she did want to hurt EFB for what he did to Nate. Then, she notes, “You still think of us as just criminals. There's always gonna be a part of you that thinks you're better than us.”

I’m not sure about the last part, but the first part is dead on.

Next, Sophie has a David on the roof, and Sterling comes with Parker along with armed men. Sophie gives instructions to Sterling about what will happen, and Nate is shown in headquarters with Hardison and the men.

Eliot comes into headquarters, and he’s unimpressed with the six guards.

On the roof, taking off her coat to reveal a harness, Sophie’s all, ‘Parker, let’s jump off the roof now,’ and of course, Parker’s in. I’m not sure why Sterling doesn’t grab the rope and try to pull them up, though, since my theory about him and Sophie working together is pure never going to be canon or even hinted at in the show.

In headquarters, Hardison frells up the earbuds of the six guards, and the three take them out. The three get ready to leave, but Hardison wants concussed, rib-damaged Eliot to help carry Old Nate Portrait out. Despite complaining, Eliot complies.

Next, Sterling goes to headquarters, and the unconscious men have zip-ties on. Also, a bomb has been planted.

Everyone gets out, and it doesn’t seem any civilians were hurt, but really?

Sterling doesn’t care. He’s going to give EFB his fondness desire and be rewarded by a corner office. A goon asks about Team Leverage, but he says they’ll scatter.

Sure enough, they’re standing in a circle in the middle of the day again, and they all dramatically walk in different directions.

…

Open to EFB holding a gun on Nate. Maggie is there, and Sterling orders the room cleared.

Three days earlier, Sterling is standing in a meeting. He’s now VP of the company, and it’s been three months since last episode.

Meanwhile, Sophie’s in a museum, and Parker may or may not be in the same place.

Sterling is giving a presentation in the meeting, and EFB likes his idea.

Over to Eliot, he may or may not be in the same building as his future wife and mother-in-law.

Same with Hardison.

After Sterling’s meeting, he and EFB find Nate has broken in.

Back with Sophie, Maggie’s there.

In the office, Nate declares he’s robbing the two Davids gallery on opening day.

There’s a shot of Hardison doing something technical.

Over to Nate, he and EFB talk about the whole EFB refusing to pay for Sam’s treatment thing.

Meanwhile, Sophie and Parker are in the same place, and they whisper yell at one another.

Same with Hardison and Eliot, and I think this might be the first time Eliot says, “Dammit, Hardison,” but I could be wrong.

Back in the office, Nate proposes a deal: EFB resigns and donates all his assets to charity, and in exchange, Nate won’t rob the gallery.

Unsurprisingly, EFB isn’t accepting.

At the muesum, Eliot tries to protect Hardison despite being across the building, and the commotion gets Sophie and Parker’s attention.

To add to this, Maggie spots Sophie. She tries to talk to her, but hurrying away, Sophie speaks Spanish.

It turns out Maggie speaks Spanish, too. This doesn’t surprise me, and it really shouldn’t surprise Sophie, either. She should have gone for a language an accomplished businesswoman that’s occasionally involved in foreign affairs might not know. When it comes to second languages for English-speaking Americans, I don’t have the exact statistics, but Spanish might be the highest on the list.

Up above, Eliot gets to Hardison in time to handle the people chasing him. Aw.

All four get out, and normally, I’d be happy about Nate pulling up as the getaway, but since he was drinking recently, I’m not. He couldn’t have rolled up in a taxivan with a driver he’d paid handsomely to ignore the fact the other passengers were clearly being chased?

Hardison takes them to mansion he got cheap. There are no toilets since the gold toilets were taken by the IRS.

Please, tell me he has a porta-potty or a chamber pot stashed somewhere.

Eliot gives Sophie a dirty look before following Hardison and Parker into another room. She and Nate follow. Eliot makes his anger at Sophie for lying to them clear, and Hardison is hurt none of them contacted him in the three months. They all insist they’re going to rob the gallery and don’t need one another.

Nate interrupts the fighting. “Why’d you come back? We agreed to scatter for six months.”

Parker claims she’s not up for leaving a job undone. Hardison starts to say he put a lot of work into them before switching to going on about how the building he blew up was his second home. Eliot declares he decides when he leaves a crew, not any outsiders. Sophie wants to hurt Sterling.

Unless she’s secretly working with him.

Nate says, if they work together, they can break EFB and humiliate Sterling.

It’s interesting he didn’t really answer their question of how he knew they’d be there. Yes, he knows their styles, but what made him think they’d apply those styles to this? Either he went to the museum on the off-chance they’d be there, or he didn’t doubt they would be.

They’re all loyal to him. Sophie conned him, but she does love him. Parker is his heir. Hardison loves them all equally but differently and might be the father of his grandchild(ren) someday. And Eliot is the protector of his heir, the husband he shares with her, and of any potential grandkids he might also be the father to.

They all start trying to plan, and Hardison would still like to talk about the kissing between him and Parker. Nate helps them figure some stuff out before saying there’s a reason they all worked together.

“Yeah. Was,” Eliot agrees with another glare at Sophie.

Parker suggests using Maggie for the con, and Nate isn’t for this, but he can’t think of a better idea.

Meanwhile, Maggie, Sterling, and EFB are at the museum. Eliot calls Maggie, and Nate is back phone driving. Maggie suggests they meet for coffee.

Nate isn’t happy, and Eliot’s defensive and uncomfortable.

He and Maggie meet, and Maggie gives every impression of being super into him.

The foursome in the van see and hear all of this.

Hi, awkward. Always happy when you pop up outside of the The Tudors.

Then, she straight up insults Nate in some really uncomfortable ways. “But worst of all, he completely forgot I gave him that same button camera for Christmas.”

I don’t buy this, but alright. I believe she gave him a button camera, but I call foul on the fact she automatically knows Eliot is in with Nate due to wearing one. Are you telling me there are no button cameras that look like this one? Never mind the fact Nate could have lost, sold, or had his stolen at some point.

Maggie opens the van door.

At the mansion, Maggie and Nate argue as everyone listens nearby.

Maggie storms out, and Nate goes after her. He says Team Leverage helps people. Then, finally, he tells her about the denial of Sam’s treatment.

She’s more sympathetic than anything, and he admits he hates himself.

There’s a flashback of him bursting into the hospital room to hold the dead Sam, and a crying Maggie is shown watching.

In the present, they hug.

Over to Sterling, a goon informs him of Eliot and Maggie talking via phone.

Eliot wouldn’t have gotten a new phone number in the last three months? Interesting.

Back in temporary headquarters, Nate explains the plan to Team Leverage plus Maggie, and Parker sniffs Maggie. Also, Maggie has changed clothes. There’s this bit where Hardison is apparently reading Maggie’s emails that I’m choosing to ignore, and she doesn’t seem to understand she’s working with actual criminals now.

Petting her, Parker declares, “You’re adorable.”

Next, Maggie’s at the gallery, and she and Nate bring the uncomfortable via earbud.

In the camera room, Sterling notices Parker and Maggie passing one another.

One thing I don’t like is Team Leverage are all comfortable messing around with people’s allergies, and in real life, this could end up literally killing someone.

Part of the con involves making a sick doctor sicker, and unless I missed it, he didn’t have anything to do with EFB denying the claim.

Next, Sophie and Eliot talk privately, and mentioning having to blow up the office due to her, he says he was, “Just getting used to it.”

“What? Having an office?”

They both know better. “Being part of a team,” he explicitly says.

Now, she’s proven she’s more dangerous than him. He’d die to protect them, including her, and she put them all in danger. He can’t hate her, but he’s not just going to brush this aside.

Still, he signals he’s ready for a truce when Parker and Hardison come in. “Sophie here was just trying to apologise.”

She protests she wasn’t, but this is enough for Parker and Hardison to forgive her. They put up Old Nate Portrait, and when she directs them, they listen.

At the gallery, Sterling creepily waves to Maggie from upstairs.

Later, Team Leverage is in the gallery whilst Sterling is talking to his goon about where he’s going to extradite each of them when he catches them.

Then, Nate strolls in with a ticket he bought, and Sterling protests, but EFB overrides him.

There’s scenes of Sterling being good at his job but Team Leverage being a step ahead. All the artwork is gone. Finally, EFB isn’t calm.

Maggie’s evacuated with the others, and Nate makes it clear to Sterling he’ll give everything back if EFB is stripped of his position and his policy of denying claims like Sam’s is overturned. He plays the recording of when he broke into Sterling’s office. When everyone finds out EFB was told there’d be a theft and didn’t call the police…

Sterling agrees, and Nate grabs the gun. “I have lost my only son. Do you really think you scare me?”

Then, Maggie reappears to punch EFB.

Sterling says, “You know your entire plan depended on me being a self-serving, utter bastard.”

Or he worked with Sophie to do all this. My vote is he’s in love with Nate and all the perks that came from doing it are part of the consolation package, but it could just be he’s trying to do real justice without anyone knowing he had to get his hands dirty. He’s just better than Nate in doing so.

“I’ll call you when it’s done,” he adds.

Walking away, Nate dismissively says, “You do that.”

Sterling’s goon is all, ‘Wait, we’re not just- letting him walk out, right?’

Later, Maggie asks if Nate will stop now, and he answers honestly, “I don’t know.”

He gets a call, and Team Leverage plus her return all the artwork they cleverly hid inside the gallery.

Next, standing in another circle outside, Nate thanks them all. They all agree it’s a good time to part ways, and so, they all start to walk away, but it’s shown they’re all tempted to look back.

Fin.


End file.
